By November 22, 2000 and December 11, 2000 orders, the Supreme Court adopted the Committee's 2000 annual rules package, and a petition for an additional amendment to N.D.R.Ct. 8.2 regarding payment of child support to the State Disbursement Unit. The amended rules became effective March 1, 2001.

The Court made the following changes to the Committee's recommendations:

(1) An insert in the explanatory notes to N.D.R.Crim.P. 18 and 21 to state "In deciding to move a trial or proceeding, a trial court must consider N.D. Sup. Ct. Admin. R. 6(B) and 7(B)." See pages 17-18 of meeting materials.

(2) An amendment to N.D.R.Ct. 10.1(d), relating to wireless communication devices in the courtroom to state "Unless the court permits otherwise, any wireless communication device in the courtroom must be turned off or muted." See page 19 of meeting materials.

(3) An amendment to N.D.R.Ev. 502(a)(2)(B) relating to the definition of representative of a client for purposes of a corporate client invoking the attorney-client privilege. See page 20 of meeting materials. As you may recall, the Committee's recommendation followed Unif.R.Evid. 502(a)(2)(B) and defined representative of a client to mean:

(B) any other person who, for the purpose of effectuating legal representation for the client, makes or receives a confidential communication while acting in the scope of employment for the client.

The Court adopted the following definition for representative of a client:

(B) a person who is specifically authorized to provide the client's lawyer with, or receive from the lawyer, information relating to the legal services being rendered and that was acquired during the course of, or as a result of, such person's relationship with the client as principle, employee, officer or director, and is provided to, or received from, the lawyer for the purpose of obtaining for the client legal advice or other legal services of the lawyer.

The Court also made a corresponding amendment to the explanatory note. See page 21 of meeting materials.

I have also included in the meeting materials a memo I prepared for the Court's consideration during its deliberations on N.D.R.Ev. 502. See pages 22-28 of meeting materials.